The present invention relates to an indicating arrangement and more particularly, to a level indicating device not employing a mechanical indicating meter for use in electrical and electronic equipment, for example, acoustic equipment such as magnetic recording and reproducing apparatuses, stereophonic reproducing apparatuses, radio receiving apparatuses, etc.
Conventionally, most level indicating devices employ indicators or meters which function mechanically for indicating levels by the deflection of the pointer needles of these meters.
The known level indicating devices with the pointer needle meters as described above have serious disadvantages in that there is a delay of approximately several hundred m sec. in rise time before the pointer needle of the meter starts deflecting when a signal whose level is to be indicated is supplied to the indicating device, and that the pointer needle tends to overshoot or undesirably deflect beyond the position corresponding to the level of this signal. Thus it is difficult to correctly indicate the level of a particular signal. The disadvantages as described above are inherent in the known indicating meters of the needle pointer type and are difficult to perfectly eliminate however accurately these meters are produced. Production of very high precision meters of this type not only results in an extreme increase in cost, but these meters are delicate construction and tend to be comparatively easily broken even by slight external vibrations or shocks, thus not being suitable for actual use.
Furthermore, in the conventional level indicating devices of the pointer needle type as described above, since it is quite impossible, owing to their construction, to alter the configuration at the indicating portion thereof, for example, to form this indicating portion into a wave-like or corrugated configuration, the design of acoustic appliances and the like is largely restricted by employment of meters of the above described type. Thus it is very difficult to adopt a fundamentally unique design which may not be found elsewhere.
Additionally, level indicating by pointer needle deflection is effective as an indicating means only when a user follows the tip of the pointer needle with his eyes and it is rather difficult to read off accurate measured values from moment to moment. Particularly, it has been almost impossible to grasp variations of levels in numerical values, for example, in dB, etc.